In This Edition

 

China expresses deep regret over the European Commission's decision to launch anti-dumping probes into Chinese solar exports.

US President Barack Obama formally accepts his party's nomination for re-election.

The earthquake in Southwest China has killed 67 people and injured 730 others.

And China's Lanzhou New Area is expected to boost development of the country's northwest.

 

Hot Issue Reports

 

China "deep regret" over EU's solar probes

China's Commerce Ministry has expressed deep regret over the European Commission's decision to launch anti-dumping probes into Chinese solar exports.

It's the largest trade investigation against China so far, involving some 20 billion US dollars worth of trade. That equals last year's amount of Chinese solar export to Europe.

Experts suggest that one possible way out is to expand China's domestic solar power market to offset the potential losses.

Shen Chengcheng has more.

Reporter

90 percent of Chinese-made solar panels and components head to overseas markets, and two-thirds of them end up in Europe.

According to previous cases, European Commission anti-dumping probes will almost certainly lead to tariffs. And that would be a huge blow to China's solar industry.

Liu Mingli is with China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

"In light of a global economic slowdown, Chinese export has already suffered a lot. Solar exports, as part of our new energy industry exports, accounts for a large proportion of our total exports. The latest probe will have serious ramifications, which will be felt for a long time."

Experts say if the anti-dumping accusations are upheld, China's solar industry would enter a difficult restructuring period lasting up to 3 years.

Before the European Commission's probe decision, China's solar panel makers have already been sucked into a trade competition with European companies.

German companies in particular have been working to lower the prices of their products.

As a result, major solar panel companies have been suffering losses and are facing bankruptcy if they can't sell their products to replay loans.

Some experts say one resolution right now is to explore the domestic market.

However, solar power is 3 times more expensive than thermal power, which makes it difficult

for it to play a bigger role in China's power generation.

The Chinese government has made plans to subsidize the solar power industry but experts say with the anti-dumping probe pending, the government needs to do more.

Meantime, Liu Mingli notes that there is much to learn from the latest European Commission anti-dumping probe.

"There are still things we don't know about the decision making process in Europe. Europe is a highly integrated economic union. So it's decision making is different from other economic bodies. Anti-dumping probe is approved by a simple majority vote."

Liu says China's solar panel companies can unite and lobby against the European Commission's anti-dumping accusations under WTO rules.

For CRI, I'm Shen Chengcheng.

 

Hu Jintao Warns of Downward Pressure for Chinese Economy

Chinese President Hu Jintao says Chinese economy is recovering slowly and encountering some destabilizing factors and uncertainties in the context of a global economic slowdown.

Hu made the remarks when delivering a keynote speech on infrastructure for sustainable growth at the CEO summit of APEC in Vladivostok, Russia.

"Problems of disparity, discord, and non-sustainability in the course of China's economic development remain prominent, economic development is facing notable downward pressure, some medium and small-sized companies are struggling in difficult circumstances, exports are facing more challenges, and we are undertaking a stern task of providing employment for young people."

Meanwhile, Hu Jintao warned lack of balance, coordination and sustainability still weighed on the economic growth and downward pressure remained for the Small and Medium Enterprises and exporters. He outlined some measures to tackle these challenges.

"China will continue to stick to proactive fiscal policies and steady currency policies, keep up the continuity and stability of our macro-economics policies, strengthen pertinence, flexibility, and far-sightedness of our macro tuning, continue to balance stable and comparatively fast economic development, adjusting economic structure, and managing inflation expectations, effectively expand domestic demand, maintain steady and comparatively fast economic development, and keep prices generally stable."

The APEC CEO summit, an annual forum for representatives of the Asia-Pacific business leaders, is part of a series of meetings organized for leaders and senior officials from all APEC economies.

 

80 dead in SW China quake

80 people have died and more than 730 were injured in a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that hit the border area of southwest China's Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

Most victims were from Yiliang county in Yunnan, the epicenter. No casualties have been reported in Guizhou.

Su Youjin is with the Yunnan Earthquake Administration.

"The area is prone to medium-strong earthquakes. There have been some so called 'double-quakes'in that area before. At the same time, the latest quakes will trigger secondary disasters in the local mountainous areas. And the damage can be larger due to limited rescue capacity."

More than 100,000 people have been evacuated in Yunnan.

Over than 20,000 houses were damaged or collapsed in the quake

The quake-prone area had been stricken by 16 aftershocks.

Authorities in Yunnan say that the death toll may continue to rise as rescuers are yet to reach some of the quake-hit villages blocked off by landslides and falling rocks.

Authorities in Yunnan have already sent work teams to the quake-hit areas and the civil affairs department is transporting thousands of tents, quilts and coats to the area.

 

Portugal Plans Further Austerity on Family Budgets

Portugal has planned to add more austerity to family budgets as the country struggles to cut its debt amid a recession.

Portugal's Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho announced the plan which indicates an increase in workers' social security contributions to 18 percent of their monthly salary from 11 percent.

"The government decided to increase the social security contribution demanded from private sector workers to 18 percent, which will allow us in return, decrease the contribution demanded from companies also to 18 percent. We therefore bring down substantially labour costs, changing investment and job creation incentives."

Passos-Coelho illustrates the measure aims to put private sector workers on an equal footing to civil servants and it will add further austerity to the country under its 78-billion-euro EU/IMF bailout.

The European Central Bank earlier agreed to launch a new and potentially unlimited bond-buying program to lower struggling euro zone countries' borrowing costs and draw a line under the debt crisis.

However, Passos-Coelho warned that, despite the new plan, Portugal will stick to its tough austerity drive and structural reforms.

"The most recent developments in the European Central Bank's policy make our adjustment process easier and bring us closer to return to financing ourselves in normal market conditions. But it is a serious mistake to assume these will substitute efforts to reform the economy and consolidate our public accounts."

Portugal is expected to see an economic contraction of 3.3 percent this year. Treasury figures indicate tax receipts will be 2 billion euro lower than forecast, while a record jobless rate of 15.7 percent is draining state funds.

 

ROMNEY accusing Obama's poor efforts over job creation

The U.S Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney hits the campaign trail, taking aim at President Barack Obama after a key monthly employment report showed tepid job growth.

Romney called the figures "disheartening for the American people" as he arrived in Sioux City, Iowa for campaign events.

"There's almost nothing the president has done in the past three and a half, four years that gives the American people confidence that he knows what he's doing when it comes to jobs and the economy. And there's certainly nothing that he said last night that gives the American people confidence he knows what he would do to create jobs or build a stronger economy".

The Labor Department report showed the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent from 8.3 percent in August, but only because many Americans gave up the hunt for work.

Romney said Obama had done nothing during his first term in office to inspire confidence among Americans in his economic policies.

An online Reuters/Ipsos poll on Thursday gave Romney a 1-point edge on Obama, 45 percent to 44 percent, two months ahead of November's election.

 

UN: 2.5 Million Syrians in Urgent Need of Assistance

The United Nations says 2.5 million people are now in urgent need of food and other assistance in Syria.

The UN humanitarian office's operations director John Ging made the remarks in Geneva after a closed-door meeting on aid for Syria.

"…A little over six weeks ago, the numbers in need of humanitarian assistance have doubled. It's now standing at 2.5 million people in need. 1.2 million people have been displaced inside Syria."

Ging added he was worried to see deteriorating humanitarian situation in the war-stricken nation."At the moment, the entire civilian population inside Syria is gripped by fear and despair, and the basis for that fear is very real when we see the numbers that are being killed, the increasing intensity of that violence in terms of the destruction and also, the despair is grounded in the fact that they do not see any prospect for an end to this horrendous cycle of violence."

More than 350 participants representing various countries, UN agencies and other organizations in the meeting urgently called for an end to the violence in Syria.

Meanwhile, the new president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, said in Damascus that he has held positive talks with Syrian President Bashar Assad who agreed to provide access to detainees and free up deliveries of badly needed aid to hundreds of thousands of people.

 

Riot in Kenya killed 12

Armed raiders killed 12 villagers and set fire to houses in Kenya's coastal region, police and the Red Cross said on Friday.

The attackers targeted a village in the Tana Delta inhabited by Pokomo farmers late on Thursday.

Jillo Dabacha, who lives in the Tana River locality, said the attackers appeared well organised.

"They were over 300, or perhaps 400 strong. All of them were heavily armed with guns not arrows or machettes. They just attacked our village and started shooting indiscriminately. They exchanged fire with a few police reservists who are stationed here, over-powered them and surrounded the entire village."

Settled Pokomo farmers and semi-nomadic Orma pastoralists have clashed intermittently for years over access to grazing, farmland and water.

The bad blood re-ignited late last month after the Pokomo accused the pastoralists of grazing cattle on their land.

100 armed Pokomo tribesmen killed more than 50 people in an attack on an Orma settlement some three weeks ago.

 

 

Lufthansa Reaches a Deal with Labour Union to End Strikes

Lufthansa has offered permanent contracts to some of its temporary cabin crew members in an attempt to end a run of strikes.

The airline said it would stop using flight attendants employed on temporary contracts by a separate company which supports Lufthansa's Berlin operations, and offer them permanent jobs within the Lufthansa group next year.

Lufthansa spokesman Klaus Walther.

"The Lufthansa board under the direction of Christoph Franz has decided, to resign from using external cabin crew in Berlin without any pre-conditions. This step towards our union contractor is a big and one-sided step. The Lufthansa board hopes that it will make it easier for the UFO union to move on the way to constructive talks about a competitive and sustainable payment structure for the Lufthansa cabin crews."

The concession came after both sides agreed to meet for talks as the third strike in eight days and the biggest to date brought fresh disruption across Germany.

The strike forced the German airline to cancel two-thirds of its flights over the weekend, which cost a loss over 10 million euros.

 

Shooting mistake killed one in New York

A convenience store employee was shot dead by New York City Police during an armed robbery in the Bronx borough of the city on Friday.

The head of the police department, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, said the shooting appeared to be accidental.

"As you know, we have a lengthy detailed process that we go through before we make a final determination on the shooting. We are showing you what we have at this juncture as quickly as we can, but we believe initially that it appears to be an accidental discharge."

Surveillance video shows that three robbers were beating the store manager and an employee, and running to the back of the store as police arrives.

Police say the officer's gun accidentally fired as one of the employees ran into the police officer when running out of the front door.

The employee died.

The three robbers have been arrested and the shooting is under investigation.

 

LNA to become economic growth engine of northwest China

Lanzhou New Area, China's fifth national level new area, will become a growth engine to boost the economic development of the country's northwest region.

The capital city of Gansu Province, was approved by the State Council last month as the fifth national level special economic development zone.

Qin Yucai, director of the National Reform and Development Commission, the country's top economic planning agency, says Gansu Province is at an important

"Gansu Province is at an important position both geographically and ecologically in the national development. LNA will serve as a pilot zone for the nation's economic restructuring and strategic platform for opening up to the West and for taking up eastern and central China's equipment manufacturing industry. "

Qin also revealed that Lanzhou will enjoy a series of preferential policies in its development.

"The central government will encourage its infrastructure construction, support its credit loans and major industrial projects."

Lanzhou New Area has already attracted 90 investment projects, with a total volume of 70.7 billion yuan.

Some of the country's top 500 companies, including Geely Automobile and Sany Heavy Industry, have already settled in the area.

The area's GDP is expected to reach 50 billion yuan by 2015 and 270 billion yuan by 2030.

 

 

Dope or go home: US cyclist

American cyclist Tyler Hamilton has bared all about doping and his own allegations against former teammate Lance Armstrong in what publishers describe as a "tell-all" look at the world of professional cycling.

Hamilton says using performance enhancing drugs was part-and-parcel of the sport's culture.

He also contends that he and former teammate Lance Armstrong participated in doping throughout their careers.

"You know, I had worked so hard to get there and then was presented with the difficult choice, basically. Dope or go home."

Lance Armstrong was stripped of all his seven Tour de France wins by USADA last month.

Armstrong is one of the sporting world's most polarizing figures and has made many enemies throughout his career.

Several of his former team mates and colleagues, including Tyler Hamilton, are allegedly ready to testify that he doped.

(Male English soundbites/0907 Hamilton-clean) 4300SP

"The majority of us were wrong, but it's like, it was a whole lot of us and he's really...I think he'll feel a lot better about coming clean and telling the truth and people will accept him."

Cyclist Tyler Hamilton there talking about doping allegations surrounding his former team-mate Lance Armstrong.

 

Lu Chuan's epic film "The Last Supper"

Chinese Director Lu Chuan's epic film "The Last Supper" will have it's world premiere at the 37th Toronto International Film Festival.

"The Last Supper" is a new adaptation of the famous story "Banquet at Hongmen" about the warring general Xiang Yu who is motivated to assassinate his rival Liu Bang.

Director Lu and lead actors Liu Ye and Qin Lan are all expected to make an appearance at the premiere.

This isn't the first time Lu Chuan has been at the film event in Toronto.

In 2009 his war movie "City of Life and Death" was well received at the festival.

"The Last Supper" is being screened Saturday as part of the world film panorama section of the festival.

It's scheduled to be released in China later this year.

 

CHINA DAILY

Local TV in Shaanxi province are reporting that thousands of children at a primary school in Xi'an spend their regular noon breaks napping on their desks.

The photos of children huddling up on desks were first exposed online before Shaanxi TV confirmed it with the school.

According to an anonymous source at Xi'an Gaoxin No 1 Primary School, there are nearly three thousand children in the school, and they have no place for their noon rest. Parents choose to send their children to the school.

When asked how it feels sleeping on her desk, one girl said, "It's OK."

One father said he will take his child home from now on and wont let him sleep.

 

SHANGHAI DAILY

A local public primary school introduced two so-called "Apple Classes", where major academic courses in the new semester will be taught with the aid of Apple's iPad.

All of the 90 first-grade students in the two pilot classes, however, are required to bring their own iPads to school every day.

This is stirring concern among some parents about the overuse of electronic products.

The principle of the school says they want to create a high-tech digital learning environment for children.

Some parents however where overwhelmed with the innovative program that they rushed to stores to buy the gadget for their children.

The school was even forced to hold a lucky draw for students to join the pilot classes as the number of applicants outstripped the quota.

Most parents hailed the ingenious trial but some worried that the digital device may distract children from their studies and even harm their eyesight.

Still, some parents worry about the adverse effect this may have on children who don't have an iPad or can't afford one, leading to comparisons of family wealth.

 

DAILY MAIL

Drinking non-alcoholic red wine might not sound like much fun, but for people at risk of heart problems it could be a lifesaver.

A study shows for the first time that the natural antioxidant compounds in red wine – not the alcohol – are good for your heart health.

Researchers in Spain say the alcohol weakens the ability of red wine to cut blood pressure, effectively cancelling out any benefits.

They found that men at high risk of heart disease had lower blood pressure after drinking non-alcoholic red wine every day for four weeks.

This could possibly reduce the risk of heart disease by 14 percent and stroke by as much as 20 percent.

The study is published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation Research.

 

NEWS24-South Africa

New Zealand's High Court has dismissed a challenge launched by climate change sceptics against a government research agency's finding that the temperature had risen in the past century.

The court backed the science that led the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) to conclude that New Zealand's climate warmed almost 1°C between 1909 and 2009.

New Zealand Climate Science Education Trust, a private body that rejects the argument that human activity has caused global warming, went to court alleging Niwa's methodology was flawed and its findings were not peer reviewed.

Judge Geoffrey Venning rejected the allegations in a written ruling handed down on Friday, saying Niwa acted "in accordance with internationally recognised and credible scientific methodology".

He says the plaintiff dis not succeed on any of its challenges.